Stainless Steel Media Cleaner & Neck Tension

[gilmillan1]

Hello,

I have been using wet stainless steel media to clean my brass, and the process leaves my brass extremely clean and shiny.

The other day I noticed that the brass gets too clean inside the neck and makes seating my bullets very difficult. I use a hydro bullet seater and noticed that the pressure spikes when I just cleaned my brass. Is there any kind of lube I can use to make the bullet seating more consistent? My brass is turned very well.

Should i consider dry lube? Thanks

 

[dbramley]

What I found was when I tumbled for too long (an hour) was that it slightly beveled the necks inward slightly, but enough that a chamfer wouldn't remove it. If I took a pick and ran it up the inside of the neck there was a large bur near rim. Even running a mandrel didn't remove or flatten it. Increased seating pressure on some but not all significantly! Took me two firingings to figure it out.

Dan

 

[Boxcar77]

Get the Imperial dry neck lube convenience pack. It comes with a container already precharged with carbon and little ceramic balls. And another container of carbon the recharge the ceramic container. It works wonders for seating on SS cleaned brass.

On a side note. Save the lid from an empty margarine container, put it on your bench upside down and put the neck lube container in the lid. It helps in keeping the little ceramic balls from going all over the place.

 

[comagutsa]

I also SS tumble and I dip my bases of my bullets in the redding graphite powder then seat the bullet.. I found dipping the necks in graphite powder would fill my bushing die up and would have to clean out every 100 rounds

 

[Mikemontminy]

I also noticed the necks getting mushroomed from the brass being tumbled in the s.s. media. Take a close look at the tip of the neck with a magnifying glass and you will see this. I have to rechamfer both inside and outside after every cleaning. Also keep an eye on your flash holes they seem to open up and sometimes look elongated. I also use hot boiling water for with dish soap and the cleaning process is probably cut in half. Mike

 

[Lightload]

I don't use SS but I do lube the inside of my necks with Hornady One-Shot Case lube. Put the cases in a loading block and then spray the one shot at a downward angle. You lube the inside and the outside of the neck at the same time. And....the stuff doesn't contaminate powder or primers so no worries there. And again......the stuff smells great! Right up there with Hoppes#9!

 

[amlevin]

I also noticed the necks getting mushroomed from the brass being tumbled in the s.s. media. Take a close look at the tip of the neck with a magnifying glass and you will see this. I have to rechamfer both inside and outside after every cleaning. Also keep an eye on your flash holes they seem to open up and sometimes look elongated. I also use hot boiling water for with dish soap and the cleaning process is probably cut in half. Mike

If you use more media this phenomena is lessened. For me, I purchased a Frankford Arsenal De-Priming tool. Makes easy work of depriming fired brass and I then put it into the SS Media for cleaning. When cleaned I anneal (which also gives me a quick dry), size, "uniform necks" a mandrel expander die, trim/chamfer with an RCBS 3-Way cutter, then they're ready to load. Finished cases have nice uniform seating pressures since I went to this sequence. Necks get a very light "lube" from a q-tip that has only enough Hornady Unique on it to leave a barely noticeable film of lube in the neck After the expander mandrel has passed through there's not enough lube remaining to have any powder stick to it as I'm charging the case.

 

[savagedasher]

With high magnification you can see very fine stainless particles embed in the brass. That is the big problem. Larry

 

[bigedp51]

The main page of this website has some very good information, this came from the Daily Bulletin.

Sinclair Product Report: Thumler’s Tumbler with Stainless Media
http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2015/06/sinclair-product-report-thumlers-tumbler-with-stainless-media/

"We know that many of our readers are now tumbling their brass in liquid media rather than dry media such as corn-cob or walnut shells. When done with STM stainless tumbling media (small ss pins), this system really does work, producing brass that is clean “inside and out”. The only down-side to wet tumbling is that sometimes the inside of the caseneck gets so “squeaky clean” that bullets take more effort to seat. This can be remedied with the use of a dry lube inside the necks".

Below, as the cases tumble the case mouths will be hit by other cases and the case mouth will be peened. The case mouth after tumbling will need to be chamfered and a VLD reamer works best. As amlevin stated above adding media lessens the peening effect along with shorter time in the tumbler.

After reading this in the Daily Bulletin I ordered Imperial dry neck lube with the ceramic balls and it works great. Before this I was dipping the case necks in a butter dish half full with graphite and this was a little messy.

 

[amlevin]

With high magnification you can see very fine stainless particles embed in the brass. That is the big problem. Larry

If the particles are that small, that high magnification is needed, there's an excellent chance that those "particles" are merely vaporized when the round is fired.

I'd be more concerned about the "grit" that is used to polish cases when using corn cob media.

 

[savagedasher]

With high magnification you can see very fine stainless particles embed in the brass. That is the big problem. Larry

If the particles are that small, that high magnification is needed, there's an excellent chance that those "particles" are merely vaporized when the round is fired.

I'd be more concerned about the "grit" that is used to polish cases when using corn cob media.

I think that is correct that is why I never use lapping compound when cleaning brass. Larry

 

[amlevin]

With high magnification you can see very fine stainless particles embed in the brass. That is the big problem. Larry

If the particles are that small, that high magnification is needed, there's an excellent chance that those "particles" are merely vaporized when the round is fired.

I'd be more concerned about the "grit" that is used to polish cases when using corn cob media.

I think that is correct that is why I never use lapping compound when cleaning brass. Larry

I'm not sure that anyone (that knows what they're doing) uses lapping compound but many DO use car polish. It contains "grit" that is extremely small but still 'grit'.

 

[savagedasher]

With high magnification you can see very fine stainless particles embed in the brass. That is the big problem. Larry

If the particles are that small, that high magnification is needed, there's an excellent chance that those "particles" are merely vaporized when the round is fired.

I'd be more concerned about the "grit" that is used to polish cases when using corn cob media.

I think that is correct that is why I never use lapping compound when cleaning brass. Larry

I'm not sure that anyone (that knows what they're doing) uses lapping compound but many DO use car polish. It contains "grit" that is extremely small but still 'grit'.

Stainless steel media is not polished and by using that it is constantly wearing and the wear particles is in the water and you are imbedding it in the soft brass. You can do it but I wont.
The next time you clean you brass take the sediment at the bottom and rub it between your fingers that is what your imbedding in your brass. Larry

 

[djtjr]

Get the Imperial dry neck lube convenience pack. It comes with a container already precharged with carbon and little ceramic balls. And another container of carbon the recharge the ceramic container. It works wonders for seating on SS cleaned brass.

On a side note. Save the lid from an empty margarine container, put it on your bench upside down and put the neck lube container in the lid. It helps in keeping the little ceramic balls from going all over the place.

Do you lube the neck or the bullet before seating? i assume the bullet because if you did the neck its likely the dumping of powder into the lubed case would pull off some of the graphite???
thanks for any more info

 

[savagedasher]

With high magnification you can see very fine stainless particles embed in the brass. That is the big problem

It was for me . Other can do what they want. Larry

 

[Ruthless4645]

With high magnification you can see very fine stainless particles embed in the brass. That is the big problem. Larry

If the particles are that small, that high magnification is needed, there's an excellent chance that those "particles" are merely vaporized when the round is fired.

I'd be more concerned about the "grit" that is used to polish cases when using corn cob media.

I think that is correct that is why I never use lapping compound when cleaning brass. Larry

I'm not sure that anyone (that knows what they're doing) uses lapping compound but many DO use car polish. It contains "grit" that is extremely small but still 'grit'.

Stainless steel media is not polished and by using that it is constantly wearing and the wear particles is in the water and you are imbedding it in the soft brass. You can do it but I wont.
The next time you clean you brass take the sediment at the bottom and rub it between your fingers that is what your imbedding in your brass. Larry

I use a Frankford Arsenal SS wet tumbler and I'am not sure what you guys are on about. Are you guys shooting super expensive custom built BR rifles where you have to be concerned about these things? or is this something all shooters need to be concerned with?

I've pulled my brass out of my tumbler and looked it over and never seen anything I thought I needed to worry about. Just asking....

 

[savagedasher]

I don't worry mine hit the road after the first using.. So did the brass. When I found small particles of stainless in the water.
When you wipe a lobe on a camshaft and the oil is filtered and you trash a motor from particles the filter missed. I knew it wasn't something I want in my gun or down the barrel.
If particles of stainless is in the water some is imbed in the brass. You can do what you want.
But never for me. Larry

 

[Darrel Martin]

This is a different situation ,so maybe my solution does not apply. I use an ultrasonic cleaner for my brass. It comes out very clean. I noticed the same kind of increased resistance to seating,with too much variation in length in the loaded rounds. After trying various things ,I found that brushing them good with my case neck brush that has brushed a million fired cases seems to reapply enough carbon to restore good smooth and uniform seating.

 

[Patch700]

I'm with Larry on this one... As of late I've stopped cleaning altogether with respect to getting the inside of the cases clean for the calibers I shoot.

How much does a person expect to gain and where by having the brass spotless apart from being obsessive compulsive about cleanliness?

My brass gets wiped down after depriming then it gets a visual along inspection along with a series if measurements then its off to the sizing die.. After that it gets inspected again and remeasured.

No more worrying about necks being too clean or pins stuck in flashholes etc and the necks get a dose of graphite to ensure adequate lube for seating as i anneal after every firing.

 

[savagedasher]

This is a different situation ,so maybe my solution does not apply. I use an ultrasonic cleaner for my brass. It comes out very clean. I noticed the same kind of increased resistance to seating,with too much variation in length in the loaded rounds. After trying various things ,I found that brushing them good with my case neck brush that has brushed a million fired cases seems to reapply enough carbon to restore good smooth and uniform seating.

Ultrasonic cleaning the brass it is very clean but the neck is too clean for seating bullet. Brushing helps. I assume you do the brass before sizing ,
When I do my brass I wipe the neck with powder solvent and vibrate with corn cob and walnut shell 2 or more hours then I size and put in the clean vibrator after vibrate again and clean the primer pockets. Primer pockets can be done before . But you must always check the primer hole corn cob can get stuck.
the neck are polished and I don't have issues with seating. Larry